Poropanchax is a genus of small West and Central African killifish in the lampeye group, named for the pale, light-catching patch just above and behind the eye that gives these fish their common name. Atlas species run 1–2 in and share a slender, laterally compressed body with an upturned mouth built for picking insects and other small prey off the surface film. They live in forest streams, swamps, and floodplain pools across a West African range that in the atlas spans Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Chad - shaded, slow-flowing, often soft and acidic water typical of the region's lowland rainforest and savanna drainages.
Unlike the seasonal killifish of the Nothobranchius type, lampeyes such as Poropanchax are not annual fish tied to a wet-dry cycle - they live in permanent water and spawn continuously, scattering eggs among floating or fine-leaved plants rather than burying them to survive a dry season. That makes them straightforward for a community or species tank once soft water is provided: peaceful, active in the upper water column, and best kept in a group. Poropanchax normani, the Norman's lampeye, is the species most likely to be seen in the trade; the others in the atlas circulate mainly among specialist killifish keepers. Conservation status leans unremarkable for the genus as assessed - four of the six atlas species are Least Concern, with the remaining two Not Evaluated.